• @[email protected]English
    -21•1 year ago

    I get it, but these substances aren’t “legal” in the same sense meant in the quote. Amphetamines, in the US at least, is a Schedule II drug. Meaning it needs to be prescribed.

    If you’re using it in the same way you would cocaine, you’re abusing it. Which is still very much illegal.

    • MambabasaOPMEnglish
      23•1 year ago

      That’s not the point. The point is that workers are so dehumanized and alienated from their life essence that they need stimulants just function under the capitalist mode of production. The legality or the drug itself isn’t the point. Had antidepressants and antianxiety meds existed in Marx’s time he would have mentioned that instead. Indeed, elsewhere he talks about opium

      • @[email protected]English
        -7•1 year ago

        Again, I get the point. But using a (mostly) illegal substance as the example is just silly. At that point why not point out that literal cocaine can be prescribed by a hospital?

        • 𝕯𝖎𝖕𝖘𝖍𝖎𝖙English
          5•1 year ago

          Yeah, right?! Modern day laws are retroactive when discussing historical texts.

          Everybody knows that.

              • @[email protected]English
                -2•1 year ago

                Well, yes. But I wasn’t commenting on Marx, I was commenting on the fact that amphetamines (Adderall) is not widely considered legal. And if we want to get pedantic, it’s only loosely “cocaineish” because it’s a stimulant.

                Caffeine would be a much more apt comparison if we are going to just go off the fact that it’s a stim: Used by the majority of the population, universally legal and accessible, virtually everyone is addicted to it, and without it most are incapable of social or professional interaction to the same degree.

                As I said, I get the point trying to be made. But it misses the mark on many levels, and those misses are being hand waived for convenience.

                • 𝕯𝖎𝖕𝖘𝖍𝖎𝖙English
                  2•1 year ago

                  legality isn’t a good marker of a substance being healthy. adderall is a drug which provides genetic therapy to individuals who have a genetic condition to help them be able to function under a society which demands more and more of the attention they barely have for themselves. adderall also comes with a black box warning, because it’s a drug which can be fatal if taken incorrectly or by people to whom it isn’t prescribed.

                  but sure, caffeine works too. maybe we could get the original tweet re-written.

    • @edrydEnglish
      4•1 year ago

      Getting a prescription is what makes it legal.